American Hustle: Sex, scandal, and 70s hair

David O Russell’s winning streak shows no sign of stopping anytime soon. The filmmaker’s recent movies The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook received major international awards recognition. American Hustle is his latest, and it is already being hailed by critics as a leading candidate for Oscar’s Best Picture prize.

The film takes viewers back to the 1970s and the Abscam sting operation, in which the FBI uncovered an elaborate web of political corruption. Bradley Cooper plays a government agent hot on the case who enlists the help of a con man – Christian Bale, with a slouch, a beer belly, and an elaborate comb-over. Bale’s character has two women in his life: his neurotic, chain-smoking wife, Jennifer Lawrence, and a crazed mistress, played by Amy Adams.

American Hustle may inspire a lot of chatter about its glam Me Decade trappings – especially Cooper’s tightly-curled hair and Adams and Lawrence’s plunging necklines – but it is also propulsive storytelling. Tom Brook talks to the cast at the film’s New York premiere.

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